Local Code of Conduct

About the Code of Conduct

North West Leicestershire District Council formally adopted the Members' Code of Conduct on 24 February 2022. This can be found in the Council’s Constitution.

How to make a complaint

If you want to make a complaint about the conduct of a Parish or District Councillor in the District of North West Leicestershire, you must submit a complaint form to the Monitoring Officer (contact details below).

Please send any documents that support your complaint with your form. The complaint will then be assessed by the Monitoring Officer in line with the Council’s adopted Arrangements for Dealing with Complaints against Councillors.

Who you can complain about

You can complain about District Councillors, Parish Councillors and co-opted members of North West Leicestershire District Council. We can only consider complaints about individual councillors or members. We cannot consider complaints about the Authority as a whole, the provision of a Council service or about people employed by it.

Complaints about Council services can be made via the Council’s Corporate Feedback system. 

What you can complain about

You can complain about a member breaking any part of our Code of Conduct. This includes:

• Respect
• Bullying, harassment and discrimination
• Compromising the impartiality of those who work for the Council
• Breach of confidentiality or improperly using information gained as a result of being a councillor
• Bringing the council into disrepute
• Misuse of the position of councillor or Council resources
• Declaring interests

The Members Code of Conduct can be found here.

What cannot be investigated 

There are some complaints that cannot be investigated, including:

• complaints that are not in writing or that cannot be substantiated
• incidents or actions that are not covered by the Code of Conduct - for example if the councillor was not acting in their official capacity at the time of the conduct complained of.
• incidents that are about a fault in the way the council has or has not done something. This is known as maladministration and may be a matter for the Local Government Ombudsman
• complaints about people employed by the council
• incidents that happened before a member was elected, co-opted or appointed, or after they have stopped being a member
• complaints about the way in which the council conducts and records its meetings

Whether your name and a summary of your complaint will be released

In the interests of fairness and natural justice, we believe members who are complained about have a right to know who has made the complaint. We also believe they have a right to be provided with a summary of the complaint. We are unlikely to withhold your identity or the details of your complaint unless: 

• you have reasonable grounds to believe you will be at risk of physical harm if your identity is disclosed
• you suffer from a serious health condition and there are medical risks associated with your identity being disclosed
• you are an officer working closely with the member concerned and are afraid of the consequences for your employment prospects if your identity is disclosed, notwithstanding our whistleblowing policy.

Requests for confidentiality or requests for suppression of complaint details will not automatically be granted.

The Monitoring Officer considering your complaint will consider the request alongside the substance of your complaint. We will then contact you with the decision.

If your request for confidentiality is not granted, we will usually allow you the option of withdrawing your complaint.

However, it is important to understand that in certain very exceptional circumstances where the matter complained about is very serious, we can proceed with an investigation or other action and may disclose your name even if you have expressly asked us not to, if that is necessary to deal with the complaint effectively. 

What information you should provide

It is important that you provide all the information you wish to have taken into account by the Monitoring Officer when she decides whether to take any action on your complaint. For example: 

• You should be specific, wherever possible, about exactly what you are alleging the member said or did. For instance, instead of writing that the member insulted you, you should state what it was they said
• You should provide the dates of the alleged incidents wherever possible. If you cannot provide exact dates it is important to give a general timeframe
• You should confirm whether there are any witnesses to the alleged conduct and provide their names and contact details if possible
• You should provide any relevant background information.

How your complaint will be handled 

• Any complaint received by the Monitoring Officer alleging that a Councillor or member has breached the Code of Conduct will be acknowledged by the Monitoring Officer who will review the complaint and assess whether it can proceed through the complaints process and if it can, whether it is suitable for informal resolution. The Monitoring Officer will deal with the complaint in line with the Council's Arrangements for Dealing with Complaints about Councillors and will keep you informed at each step in the process.